The present invention relates generally to air purifiers for cleaning air, and more particularly to an ultraviolet ionizing chamber for portable air purifiers, which ultraviolet ionizing chamber helps to eliminate contaminants from the air being treated, including biospecies, dust particles, odors, and volatile organic chemicals.
The presence of airborne biospecies (e.g., dust mites, bacteria, viruses, and fungi), dust particles, pollen, odors, and volatile organic chemicals can exacerbate allergies in people sensitive to these agents. Moreover, contaminated surfaces in hospitals and health care facilities—such as counter tops, beddings, bed pans, and medical devices—have been identified as the cause of spread of infections and disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 1.7 million hospital associated infections in the US every year, 99,000 out of those may result in death (Klevens and others 2007). Indoor air is also recognized as major vector of nosocomial infections, the infections that may be acquired in a hospital or health care facility. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of S. aureus that is resistant to beta-lactams antibiotics, is a bacterium that causes infections of skin, and is identified as the common cause of health care associated infections (HAIs). CDC surveillance data reveals 58.4% MRSA infections were community-onset, 26.6% were hospital-onset, 13.7% were community-associated, while 1.3% were unclassified (Klevens and others 2007).
There is an ever growing need for development and evaluation of technologies aimed at reducing environmental contamination and improving the quality of indoor air that we breathe. Accordingly, a variety of devices and methods have used to purify air. These include air filtration, the use of charged plates, and UV light, among others. However, the efficacy of some of these devices can be limited due to their inability to remove nearly all of the airborne agents.
There accordingly remains a need for a highly effective device which will remove a very high percentage, e.g., 95%, and preferably 98% or more of these agents on a single pass of air through an air purification unit.